Six top tips to keep it personal

GSO-Week_Webpage_banner1. Don’t publish your date of birth in your profile or highlight your birthday in posts or tweets. Why not? Your date of birth is very useful information for a fraudster, hacker or identity thief.

2. Remember that if you use the names of pets, family members, a sports team or other ‘favourite’ things in your passwords or memorable words, and reveal your likes and dislikes online, you may be handing a criminal clues to your login details.

3. Don’t reveal your passport number, driving licence number or any other official details to anyone unless you’re absolutely sure that they are authentic, and that providing these details is necessary. For example, if a prospective employer or agency asks you for a passport scan as proof

of ability to work in the UK, check their authenticity.

4. Don’t get fooled into revealing your PINs or passwords in response to an email, social networking post, text or phone call, however convincing it seems that the request is from your bank, the police or another real organisation.

5. Don’t write down or store login details electronically or on paper, where there’s a chance they could be found.

6. Never open an email attachment unless you’re 100% certain of who sent it, or what it is. This is because it could contain a virus that steals your personal information. Even an email that seems to come from a friend or colleague could have been sent by a virus on their device. If in doubt, ask the person you believe sent it before opening anything

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *